Ch 28 - The Sino-Japanese War

The Squeeze

The Japanese successfully drove Chinese troops out of Korea to the north, created an eleven-man puppet cabinet in Seoul and forced the introduction of numerous government reforms.

The Japanese greeted the declaration of war against China with a nationwide explosion of patriotism. The entire Japanese press corps, including publications of the parties most opposed to the government, joined in a united chorus that exhorted the public to unanimously support the government, deny it nothing and suspend criticism of either its actions or its members. The once stormy differences between the Imperial Diet and the administration quickly dissolved as the consciousness of a common threat brought about a complete political reconciliation. The Japanese government and its people bonded together in a nationalistic consensus over Korea's fate.

There was no such unity in China. The Zongli Yamen, the provincial authorities and imperial government officials all held different views on the growing conflict with Japan. This fragmented position rendered Emperor Guangxu's court indecisive and subjected Li Hongzhang to unwarranted pressure and criticism for his every move. As a result, for all his efforts at diplomacy with Japan and Korea, Li achieved nothing positive. By the time he recognized the ineffectiveness of his diplomacy, China had already lost valuable time in readying itself to contend with the Japanese militarily.

The Qing government confidently believed in Japan's frailty and China's invincibility, but there was no clear demarcation of authority, no unity of command, nor any plan to mobilize the nation. Few Chinese outside the government were even aware of the building conflict over Korea. It would have made little difference had they known. Instead of a united war effort, there were only isolated outrages against the 5,500 Japanese residents in China. Westerners who wore Chinese clothing were seen as adapting to Chinese life. Japanese residents who wore Chinese clothing were immediately suspected of deception or subversion.

Qing China was divided into a number of large provinces, each approximating an average European state in area and population. A viceroy ruled each province, raised his own revenues and maintained his own armies - in some cases a naval force as well - separate from those in the other provinces. This diverse military force was at the absolute disposal of the Emperor and his war council for the defense of China. China generally modeled its fleets after the British navy, but beyond the Admiralty Board created in Beijing in 1885, there was no effective centralized command structure. As a result, the Chinese navy varied widely in its operational readiness.

Viceroy Li Hongzhang, sometimes called the "Bismarck of China," governed Zhili Province (modern Hebei Province), the northern metropolitan province which includes Beijing. With the assistance of the Imperial Council, Li founded the Beiyang (Northern Ocean) Fleet to protect the waters north of Shantung Province. The Nanyang (Southern Ocean), Fukien and Canton fleets guarded other specific oceanic regions. The Beiyang Fleet formed the bulk of the Chinese naval force and was more powerful than all the central and southern province fleets put together.

The Qing Government first committed itself to building a modern navy in 1878, shortly after it realized it had no way to repel a Japanese naval force that intruded into China's territorial waters off the coast of Taiwan Province. Following consultations with Britain and Germany, the Qing Government contracted with Germany's Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan shipyard to build an advanced, modern battleship. Launched in 1884, the Ting Yuen outclassed any ship in the British or German navies.

The 7,430-ton Ting Yuen stretched 310 feet in length and 59 feet across the beam. Covered with 12 inches of body armor, the ship could withstand any contemporary weapon ashore or at sea. The ship carried four 12-inch Krupp cannon, each capable of firing a shell with a muzzle velocity of 1,640 feet per second out to a range of 4.8 miles (8,530 yards). Each of the 6-inch Krupp cannon mounted at the bow and stern could hurl shells out to a range of 6.8 miles (12,030 yards) with a muzzle velocity of 1,903 feet per second.

The state-of-the-art battleship and its advanced technology shocked the world and aroused a great deal of attention, especially among Asian nations. The Ting Yuen's arrival in China in 1885, formally marked the creation of Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Fleet, China's first modern fleet. The battleship, along with its sister ship the Chen Yuen and the light cruiser Chi Yuen operated out the newly established naval base at Liugongdao Island near Weihaiwei on the north side of the Shandong Peninsula. Over the next decade, the Ting Yuen toured Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malacca and Vladivostok, winning fame and glory wherever it steamed.

Li Hongzhang had all the responsibility for directing China's diplomatic and military affairs, but none of the requisite authority needed to decide matters of policy or to control military forces beyond the Huai Army and his own meager fleet at Weihaiwei. The entire Beiyang Fleet was the antithesis of an ordered military structure and Li did little to foster a strong military service. He tended to select his subordinates solely on the basis of their personal loyalty and willingness to work. Men without specific military skills commanded his modern naval squadrons.

Admiral Ting Ju-Chang, for example, commander of the Beiyang Fleet, was a cavalry officer by training and knew next to nothing about ships. Li Hongzhang appointed a Prussian fortification engineer named Constantin von Hanneken as co-admiral under Admiral Ting, partly to help save him from decapitation in case of defeat. Sub-Lieutenant W. F. Tyler, a young Royal Navy Reserve officer and an Imperial Maritime Customs officer, probably the single most knowledgeable naval strategist in the entire fleet, served as Hanneken's naval adviser and personal secretary. Captain Philo N. McGiffen, a retired U.S. Navy officer and an instructor at the Weihaiwei naval academy served as a co-commander aboard the battleship Chen Yuen under the command of Captain Lin Taizeng.

By the mid-1890s, a time when Japan was busily strengthening its own fleet, the weakening Qing Dynasty in China lost interest in keeping ahead in the naval race. Corruption, fiscal irregularities and confused motives and ideals plagued the Beiyang Fleet and the entire Chinese naval command structure. For the most part, each group within the command acted in its own self-interest. Many army and navy officers aided and abetted the embezzlement of government funds for personal gain, a behavior that had plagued China for centuries. Still, there was a curious order to the apparent disorder.

China did little beyond going through the motions of building up its military. Although Chinese arsenals held tons of excellent weapons of all types and sizes, none of it was usable for lack of adequate supplies of the right caliber ammunition. Certain Chinese regiments, still armed with bows and arrows, carried formidable-looking swords made of tin. When British advisers offered China the opportunity to purchase two fast cruisers for its navy, the Empress Dowager "redirected" the money originally appropriated for the purchase and spent it instead on the construction of the lavish Summer Palace just outside the city walls of Beijing. Japan immediately purchased both ships. One of them, the Yoshino, haunted Li's navy near Asan Bay and again in the Battle of the Yalu River.

China's military structure, well greased with bribery, extortion and nepotism, worked smoothly in peacetime. To any casual observer, China's navy was the very image of power and, on paper at least, appeared superior to the Japanese. Closer examination however, would reveal that the ships had only half-filled magazines. The big 10-inch Krupp guns on the battleships Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen reportedly carried only three shells between them. In one instance a pair of 10-inch guns appeared to have been sold for cash on the black market. Chinese gunners were ill-trained and gun crews were unprepared for the stress of naval gunnery under fire. The money appropriated for ammunition often lined the pocket of the fleet ordinance officer, none other than Li Hongzhang's own son-in-law, Zhang Peilun.

Freshly painted ships and smartly dressed officers presented a masterful outward appearance, but in the areas that really mattered, the Beiyang Fleet was a comical navy more suited for harbor cruises than open sea warfare against the likes of the Japanese. Corruption and mismanagement in the munitions factories resulted in the production of shells that exploded inconsistently. Cement powder, coal dust, sawdust, even water was sometimes substituted for gunpowder. It was not uncommon to discover large arsenals of cannon balls made of painted mortar.

Japan's success in Korea happened so suddenly that by the time war had formally been declared on August 1, the Chinese had already been driven out of Seoul. The Chinese were in full withdrawal by the end of the month. Chinese residents were being rounded up and deported and the Japanese were busily disarming Korean troops wherever they could be found.

With the Chinese gone and its own army helpless, Korea was forced to sign a series of agreements that placed it virtually under Japanese rule. The Korean government signed a treaty of military alliance with Japan through which Korea would give every facility for the movement of Japanese troops and the supply of provisions. For its part, the Japanese government promised "to maintain the independence of Korea on a firm footing." The Japanese obtained rights to build railroads and telegraph systems and opened virtually every seaport along the Cholla coast to Japanese trade. The agreement effectively converted Korea into little more than a Japanese military supply depot. The Japanese held the upper hand on the peninsula and exercised virtual control over all internal security matters. Korea was completely in Japanese hands.

Koreans did not accept Japanese tamely and the capital in Seoul was rife with rumors. The winter of 1894-95 was a period of great fear and unrest in Korea. One such rumor held that the Taewongun, bitterly opposed to the reform program, was planning a coup d'etat that would involve all the high-ranking pro-Japanese officials in the Yi court. The Taewongun originally accepted Japanese help to vanquish his enemy Queen Min. Soon however, his deep hatred of foreigners reappeared and the tough eighty-three-year-old statesman began to see events very differently. He seemed willing to turn on the Japanese with any means that came to hand. The assassination of Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hag-a in November of 1894 gave some credence to the rumor.

Another wild rumor, believed by some to have been a Japanese fabrication, held that the Taewongun purportedly formulated plans to depose King Kojong and his long-time enemy Queen Min and enthrone his own grandson, Yi Chun-yong. To succeed however, he would first have to force Japan to withdraw its troops from Korea. Toward that end, the Taewongun reportedly made contacts with officers of the Chinese Huai Army, then stationed near Pyongyang, and members of the Tonghak peasant army then still engaged in fighting with the Japanese. Although the discovery of the plot caused the Japanese a considerable amount of anxiety, they soon came to believe that the Taewongun was actually more interested in grabbing personal power and purging his enemies than in carrying out reforms.

Fearing that Minister Otori Keisuke might lose control of the tense situation in Seoul, the Japanese government recalled him to Tokyo. In his place, they appointed the prestigious statesman Inoue Kaoru as Japan's Foreign Minister to Korea. Inoue's appointment increased the pressure on the Korean government.

The Japanese captured numerous documents after driving the Chinese out of Pyongyang, including a purportedly secret communication between the Taewongun and the Chinese describing his plot against the royal throne. Minister Inoue cleverly used this document to "uncover" the plot and succeeded in once again forcing the Taewongun into retirement. He also succeeded in persuading King Kojong to set up the Deliberative Council, an eleven-man puppet cabinet under the leadership of Kim Hong-jip.

The Japanese staffed the new council with men from pro-Japanese factions in Seoul and others not identified with any past or present pro-Chinese sentiments. At the core of this new cabinet were men associated with the Progressive Party that initiated Kim Ok-kyun's abortive coup d'etat in 1884, including Pak Yong-hyo. The eleven members of the Deliberative Council took their new positions seriously and carefully reviewed each reform proposal before rendering a decision. Operating almost entirely on its own outside the purview of King Kojong and Queen Min, the Deliberative Council pushed ahead with its own reform agenda without interference from the Yi government.

One of the many political reforms undertaken by the new administration separated the palace apparatus from the administrative arm of the government. The State Council was reorganized into seven ministries and supporting bureaus;  foreign affairs, home affairs, finance, justice, education, defense, and agriculture, commerce and industry. Operating under a prime minister, a Japanese adviser headed each ministry, each of which had its own carefully defined place in the government hierarchy.

The reformers abolished Korea's traditional examination system, established new procedures established for selecting government officials and redefined the office rank system. The reformers also eliminated the once stark class distinctions between yangban and commoners in Korea. They denounced the social and ritual distinctions that once marked relations between officials in the civil and military branches of service. In conjunction with restructuring the government, the reformers abolished the laws that perpetuated slave ownership and prohibited the buying and selling of human beings. Even those of lowborn status were freed from their traditional place in Korea society. In point of law, the sweeping reforms abolished Korea's entire social class status system.

The reformers restructured Korea's local governments by reorganizing the twenty-three prefectures in Korea into thirteen provinces, thus somewhat simplifying the once complicated system of local rule. In addition, they removed the judicial and military powers formerly exercised by local government offices, thereby weakening their authority over local populations and reflecting a more modern concept of local government. They created a new system of courts and police and placed all judicial matters under their jurisdiction. They separated the administration of justice within Korea from the exercise of executive power. Korean peasants enthusiastically welcomed the implementation of the Deliberative Council's revolutionary reform program through the Local Directorates.

The Deliberative Council also thoroughly reordered Korea's fiscal administration. Following the reforms first proposed by the progressives in 1884, the new Ministry of Finance took control of all fiscal matters. The introduction of a stabilized cash-basis monetary system allowed Korea to serve as a major market for Japan's industrial output. The new currency system and new regulations gradually moved Korea onto the silver standard, a move welcomed by Japanese traders. Koreans would now pay their taxes with cash instead of hard goods or rice. Currency reform and the standardization of weights and measures triggered an incidental, if not unintended effect;  the further penetration of Korea's economy by Japan's developing capitalist economy.

Not all these progressive reforms benefited Korea. Among the various changes introduced by the Deliberative Council, there was no apparent concern given to correcting the defects in the military system. Although the new Ministry of Defense took command of Korea's nearly 3,000-man army, it did nothing to ensure either adequate military manpower resources, or to provide for the development or acquisition of new weapons, both matters essential to the security of a modern nation.

The requirement that taxes be paid with cash instead of the fruits of the harvest created an unneeded hardship on village peasants. Since coins were not in widespread circulation in the villages at the time these reforms took effect, the peasants first had to sell their crops for cash, then pay their taxes. The two-step process became all the more difficult because Korea had yet to establish a banking system.

Finally, the Deliberative Council enacted new legislation aimed directly at eliminating a wide variety of malignant social practices and customs. They banned the torture of criminal suspects and the extension of punishment to family members of convicted criminals. Men could not marry until they reached the age of twenty and woman under the age of sixteen could not marry. The council formally sanctioned the pursuit of business careers by former government officials. Laws were changed that regulated modes of dress to further break the distinctions between the yangban and commoners, a change that had the effect of encouraging the wearing of more practical clothing in Korea.

The Chinese response to Japan's rapid pace of internal reform in Korea and its increased military presence in the region was woefully inadequate. In an attempt to lure the Chinese into open water for a fight, Japanese warships arrived in the waters off Weihaiwei Naval Base on August 10 and commenced a naval bombardment of Chinese shore defenses. Instead of rising to take the bait, Admiral Ting Ju-Chang chose to remain in port. The Japanese naval raid at Weihaiwei stunned the Qing court, which realized that the Yellow Sea now belonged to the Japanese Fleet by default.